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Acceptable drive shart end play

N

Nic

Active member
I know there is an acceptable, and expected amount of end play in the drive shaft, fore and aft. I unwrapped my engine today from its 4 year storage, just to wrap it back up again. While I was at it, I thought I'd check the end play. I seem to have none. I don't seem to be able to get any wiggle out of it. What does that say about the engine?

P.S., here are a few engine pics.

Sittin' perty...
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The carb says its a 30/31 pict. Bleh... Gonna need a bigger carb, or dual carb set up.
photobucket-4160-1353808541090.jpg


Not sure what these numbers mean on the side of the oil pan.
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Left side rockers. I found a small broken plastic circle piece. not sure what it is though.
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Alternator stand and engine stamp.
photobucket-5974-1353808521348.jpg
 
letterman7

letterman7

Honorary Admin
No end play is good, assuming you're tugging at the right pulley. It's very unusual that there isn't even a little bit - push back and forth on the crank pulley and you should be able to feel a little give, but not much. I forget the target range, I think it's something like .004 to .010 is acceptable, anything over that needs to be shimmed. I'd throw a big socket on that pulley nut, shoot some WD-40 down the spark plug holes and see if you can turn it over.

The number on the oil pan is just a batch casting number. The number on the generator stand is the engine number. The plastic piece you found in the rocker cover is probably one of the plastic spacers on the rocker arms where the circlips go. You'll need to find where it's missing and replace it before you fire up the engine.. and that means taking apart the rocker assembly. Get your Bentley out and look at how all that goes together.

As for the carb... run it and save the money to either build the motor to a dual port or go ahead and find one that's already a late model dual port. Putting dual carbs on single ports is a waste of time and money.
 
N

Nic

Active member
Hi Rick,

I was able to put a crescent wrench on the large nut and give the engine a few turns with some effort. It did run when I pulled it from the car 5 years ago. I tried a little push/pull on the large pulley, not the Gen. pulley.

As you can see I pulled the case cover off and noticed the gasket was cracked and missing a piece. That could explain the leak I was seeing before I pulled it. I checked CIP and Dan's for replacement gaskets and got a mix of results regarding gasket material. Some were cork and some were rubber. Is there a preferred material to use? I need to order something asap as it's leaking oil still. I put the cover back on after removing the damaged gasket.
 
letterman7

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Yeah, always test with the crank pulley. The gen pulley will tell you nothing. As for the mystery piece, hard to tell from the photo, Nic. Are you sure it's plastic or rubber and not metal? My first thought was one of the "wavy" washers or shims had broken on the rocker assembly (these: 1644 Rocker Arm Spacers - fits 1.1:1 and 1.25:1 High Performance Rocker Shafts) but it looks like all the wavy washers are still there beside the clips. It's possible it might be a piece of the push rod tube seal or simply just a piece of sealant that was on the valve cover initially. It wouldn't be a case seal - there's no way for those to work into the oil gallery.
Sealing the covers, for me, has always been a pain in the butt with the traditional bail covers. I've tried the cork and the rubber and I've always had them slide when I pull the bails over. Some guys will clean the covers with brake cleaner, then glue the gaskets in place with RV sealant (hence my guess with the little piece of rubber) then put the covers on after the RV dries. I gave up after a couple of months of battling with bail covers and switched to the bolt-on style and never had an issue with those. Oddly, most of the articles I read dealing with bolt-ons say that they leak worse than bails, but on three engines I've had them on, they've never leaked - ever. Maybe I've been lucky! :D
 
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letterman7

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Sounds right. I didn't check the code against the Samba's technical records, but it really doesn't matter. A 1300 would have a different carburetor on it, so we know it's a 1500/1600 (same case and cylinders, different pistons). A rubber ring could only come from the pushrod tubes, so unfortunately you'll have to start there. If you get the valve cover back on and sealed right and you still see oil seeping out the back of the head, then you know one of the pushrod seals has gone. Make sure you clean out that head before you put the cover on, but I think you know that :D
 
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